Future Tense (episode)
Enterprise finds a small craft – apparently from the future – adrift in space, and both the Suliban and the mysterious Tholians are intent on retrieving it. Summary ''Enterprise'' finds a shipwreck that appears to have no apparent weapon damage, but its hull prevents any extensive scans. They bring it on board and discover a Human corpse in it. Since this Human went farther than any other, hypotheses are made about its identity: Could it be the long lost Zefram Cochrane? A rendezvous with the Vulcan starship Tal'Kir is scheduled to bring the wreck back to Earth and examine it further. Trip Tucker and Malcolm Reed continue examining the ship but neither of them can find anything that looks like a propulsion system, a black box or even a power source. What they find is even stranger: a hatch leading to a new room that makes the ship bigger from the inside than it is from the outside. Not long after, a Suliban salvage ship drops out of warp and claims salvage rights on the wreck. Jonathan Archer is not ready to give it up so easily, but the Suliban captain cuts the discussion short by opening fire on the Enterprise. The salvage ship is no match for the NX ship and, even after transporting a team of soldiers/saboteurs on the Enterprise, the Sulibans decide to pull back. Meanwhile, Phlox discovers strange patterns in the corpse's DNA: even if it is mainly Human, it contains DNA segments from many different species, notably Vulcan ones. Since there are no records of Human-Vulcan mating to date, Archer begins to suspect the ship is from the future. He pays a little visit to Daniels's quarters and finds out this is effectively the case – the ship is from the 31st century. Shortly after, a Tholian starship repeats the same pattern as the Sulibans' before, but they also pull back when Archer threatens to destroy the wreck to prevent the Tholians from having it. In the launch bay, Tucker is finally able to get some power back to the ship. The power restoration is followed by two experiences of déjà vu, and after investigation, they detect high energy particles emitted by the ship and conclude it is some kind of temporal radiation. The launch bay is then sealed off. Only a couple of minutes from the rendezvous point with the Vulcan cruiser, the Suliban are back, this time with reinforcements. Archer decides that the Enterprise can sustain the Sulibans' fire for a little while and decides to make a run for the rendezvous point. When they drop out of warp however, it is only to realize the Vulcans have been disabled by a squadron of Tholian ships. Fortunately for Enterprise, the Tholians engage the Suliban first. By the time the Tholians get rid of the Suliban, Tucker has activated a temporal beacon and the ship from the future has been loaded with a warhead. Even though the Tholians finally get the ship, it, the corpse, and the beacon quickly dematerialize in their tractor beam, probably a consequence of activating the beacon. Memorable Quotes "It's unlikely we could reproduce... Humans and Vulcans." : - T'Pol, making herself clear after she got a strange look from Archer "If a Human and a Vulcan did have a child, I wonder if he'd have pointed ears?" : - Archer, teasing T'Pol "What did he say?" "I don't know, but I don't think he was paying you a compliment." : - Archer and Hoshi, discussing the Tholian's parting comments "When I was young, I always wanted to build a time machine... see the future." "You're probably the kind of person who jumps to the end of a book before you read it." : - Reed and Tucker "I wonder if they'll believe that Humans and Vulcans will be... swapping chromosomes one day?" "They're more likely to believe in time travel." : - Archer and T'Pol Background Information * A working title for this episode was "Crash Landing". * This episode is the first appearance of the Tholians in almost 34 years, since their debut in . * Behind the captain while Reed is cutting into the timeship on a counter sits the Exocomp prop device from TNG that was modifed in Dead Stop to repair Reed's leg. * An early pitch for the story that became "Future Tense" had the appearing instead of a timeship from the 31st century. This was deemed impractical at the time for story (by seeing the Defiant, Archer would know too much about the future) and production reasons. The Defiant later appeared in , dragged into the mirror universe, where Archer's counterpart had no such scruples. * This episode alludes to the TOS episode , in which Zefram Cochrane is discovered alive and well living with a non-corporeal lifeform. * The time-ship is run by organic circuitry, a 31st century descendant of Bio-neural circuitry, first used by the starship. * The ending of the episode was not exactly what co-writer Mike Sussman had hoped for. In an earlier version, a time traveling character from the 31st century (similar to Crewman Daniels) appeared on the bridge at the end of the episode. He claimed the time ship and the body inside, revealing to the crew that the corpse was actually his. This unnamed character also gave Archer some additional clues about the Temporal Cold War and the Tholians' role in it before departing. * Among the images in the "temporal database" are schematics for a Klingon ship, an starship (possibly ), an Intrepid-class aeroshuttle, the Mir space station, the US space shuttle, a Nygean ship, a Romulan warbird, a ship, the unnamed ship that attacked Enterprise in , and an upside-down starship. * Also in the database is a news article on President George W. Bush's State of the Union Address for 2003. * This is also the last time Daniel's "Temporal database" is seen. Note: The Temporal Database shouldn't be mistaken for the Temporal Observatory. * The timeship in this episode was partly inspired by the from Doctor Who. Both timeships are considerably bigger on the inside than the outside. Mike Sussman noted: "my idea of the ship morphing into a police call box was immediately nixed by the producers!" (''Star Trek Monthly'' issue 108) Links and references Main Cast *Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer *John Billingsley as Phlox *Jolene Blalock as T'Pol *Dominic Keating as Malcolm Reed *Anthony Montgomery as Travis Mayweather *Linda Park as Hoshi Sato *Connor Trinneer as Charles "Trip" Tucker III Guest Stars *Vaughn Armstrong as Admiral Maxwell Forrest *Cullen Douglas as Suliban Soldier Uncredited Co-Stars *Jef Ayres as Crewman Haynem *Mark Correy as Alex *Daphney Dameraux as an operations division ensign *Scott Hill as Ensign Hutchison *Aldric Horton as an operations division crewman *Roy Joaquin as a science division crewman *Todd Wieland as an operations division crewman *Unknown actor as ** Engineer ** Time-pod Pilot Stunt double *Shawn Crowder as stunt double for Connor Trinneer Additional characters * Computer generated voice as Tholian Officer References 1588; 2003; 31st century; AeroWing; antimatter injector; B'Saari; biomatter; black box; Bush, George W.; cargo hauler; cloaking device; chromosome; Cochrane, Zefram; Cochrane family; Cochrane's ship; combat ship; ; ; Daniels; data storage matrix; Denobulans; Jane Doe; Earth Cargo Authority; EM radiation; emergency beacon; engineer; England; escape pod; exhaust port; First Contact; future database; ; genetic profile; herbivore; hologram; hyperspanner; interspecies database; ; Klingon Bird-of-Prey; Krenim warship; metallurgical analysis; micro-caliper; microcellular scan; micro-transmitter; nonhumanoid species; ; nucleotide sequence; ; organic circuitry; plasma exhaust port; power grid; power module; power relay; propulsion system; ; ; Rigelian; Silik; Spacedock; Spanish Armada; spanner; spatial geometry; stealth ship; Stegosaurus; subspace signature; Suliban; Suliban Cabal; Suliban cell ship; Suliban salvage ship; ; Tal'Kir; Tapper, Jake; Temporal Cold War; temporal database; temporal displacement drive; temporal radiation; Terrellian; Tholians; Tholian Assembly; Tholian language; Tholian vessel; thruster quad; time machine; time travel; Time-travel pod; tractor beam; Vega colony; Vulcan; Vulcan combat cruiser; Vulcan cruiser; Vulcan High Command; Vulcan Science Directorate; Vulcan transport; warp reactor; xenophobic; |next= }} Category:ENT episodes cs:Future Tense de:Die Zukunft es:Future Tense ja:ENT:沈黙の漂流船 nl:Future Tense